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Bob Sorenson has seen mothers run down high school hallways, waving diplomas and sobbing. He’s watched immigrant adults study for American citizenship exams. He chats in English and Spanish with Guatemalan teens who spend hours after school learning gerunds and nouns.

At local migrant camps, Sorenson has witnessed discrimination against non-English speaking Hispanics.

“People were treating them like they weren’t even human,” he said.

As director of literary services for Literacy Council Gulf Coast in Bonita Springs, Sorenson works to help those who don’t speak English push past prejudice as they learn the language and reach for a better life.

The council, which is funded by United Way, donations and grants, can teach English to a student for less than $200 per year. There are programs for at-risk mothers and their toddlers and computer and GED classes in addition to English, literacy and citizenship courses.

Some of the about 3,300 students who participated in the council’s programs during the last fiscal year enrolled in college. Others learned how to read their children’s homework. They can talk with teachers, employers and pediatricians.

Mario Santos, 29, has been learning English at the literacy council for about a year and a half. He attends group classes and one-on-one tutoring sessions three or four days a week. Santos, who moved from Guatemala to Bonita Springs in 2001, said prior to taking classes, he sometimes felt scared when he couldn’t converse with the people around him.

“I didn’t understand much,” he said.

After being badly burned in a construction accident several months ago, Santos has had even more time to work on his English. Post-recovery, he’ll be unable to continue work in construction and will need to master the language to go to school or learn a new trade.

Cultural lessons

On a recent Wednesday evening, citizenship test instructor Etta Smith sat at a round table in a library surrounded by books such as “Making Connections” and “Spanish Is Fun.”

“What does ‘cited’ mean?” she asked as she prepped two students who are going to Tampa for four-part citizenship exams that cover speaking, reading, writing and civics.

Smith quizzed Maria Jesus, 38, of San Carlos Park, and Gaspar Mendoca, 45, of Bonita Springs, on the U.S. constitution.

“It’s really hard, but look how smart you are that you could do that,” Smith told Mendoca after he answered correctly. “I’m very proud of you, Gasbar.”

Since attending classes at the council, Mendoca can better understand his boss, he said. He dreams of the day he’ll be proclaimed an American citizen.

“I want allegiance to the U.S.,” he said.

As the sun set across downtown Bonita, more than 50 locals, many of them Hispanic, filed into the literacy council, where they sat near world maps and flipped through English workbooks in about half a dozen evening classes that were underway.

“People, as adults, to learn a second language are apprehensive,” Sorenson said. “The group dynamic seems to help everybody.”

“Wool is a kind of material you would wear in very cold weather,” he told a class of about 10 students who hailed from countries such as Guatemala, Haiti and Argentina. “You would not wear wool in Florida. In Florida, you would wear cotton.”

In the library, a hands-on session forced more than a dozen students to follow verbal English directions: stand next to the bookcase; take the hat off; place the backpack inside the bookcase.

“They remember this — when you have to touch items and move around,” Sorenson said. “You have to understand what she’s saying. You can’t fake it.”